Motorists can get instant updates on the condition of U.S. 36 on their mobile phones or other portable devices by visiting m.usexpresslanes.com.

WESTMINSTER -- If you feel a little more hemmed in than normal on your commute home on U.S. 36 this evening, it's because you will be.

Westbound motorists have just lost a foot of width -- lanes on Wednesday night shrank from 12 feet to 11 feet -- and a whole lot of shoulder disappeared, too, as crews completed the first major realignment of U.S. 36, between Sheridan Boulevard and the Old Wadsworth Boulevard bridge.

The purpose of the realignment is to divert all traffic to the westbound side of the highway so that the eastbound lanes can be torn up and reconstructed. The shift of vehicles from the eastbound lanes should happen over the next month.

The newly slimmed-down roadway, with 2-foot buffers on both sides of the road, will serve as a preview for how U.S. 36 will look and feel for the next two years, as the massive overhaul of the highway -- known as the U.S. Express Lanes project -- shifts into overdrive. The narrowing of highway will gradually spread west to 88th Street over the next few months.

Crews spent much of Wednesday moving heavy concrete barriers into place near Sheridan Boulevard to separate both directions of traffic.

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Work on the U.S. 36 Express Lanes project began in July, but Jason Estes, construction manager for Ames Granite Joint Venture, said only now will things really start to take off. Ames Granite is the design-build contractor for the project.

Commuters can expect to see more workers, more earthmovers, more trucks and more activity along U.S. 36 as spring approaches, Estes said.

"So far we've done very little that is permanent," he said. "We're expected to pick up speed and start the permanent construction. This is the beginning of the true impacts motorists will feel."

Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Mindy Crane said now is the time for motorists to really pay attention to speed limits, eliminate all distractions from their daily commutes and keep attentive to everything going on around them.

"This is our first major milestone of the project, and it marks the biggest of the initial major improvements," Crane said Wednesday. "There are going to be some delays for motorists, but the ultimate outcome of the project is going to provide multiple travel options for the commuter and enhanced safety."

Significant facelift

U.S. 36 is undergoing its most significant facelift since it was built in 1952. The highway connecting Denver and Boulder will be paved anew in concrete and get an additional managed lane in each direction to accommodate buses and high-occupancy vehicles. Solo drivers willing to pay a toll will also be able to use the extra lane.

Five bridges in the corridor will be reconstructed, while three will be widened.

The work should transform the highway into a sleek, information-rich transit corridor, complete with electronic signs displaying real-time traffic messages and a bus rapid transit system providing service that mimics the regularity and frequency of commuter rail.

The first phase of the project, from Federal Boulevard to 88th Street, costs $312 million and is expected to be completed at the end of 2014. A second phase, from 88th Street to the Table Mesa park-n-Ride in Boulder, is out to bid. Proposals are due to CDOT in March.

On Wednesday night, Boulder-bound traffic was shifted at Sheridan Boulevard to a stretch of new pavement on the north side of the highway. The existing westbound lanes will fall silent for a few weeks before becoming the lanes for Denver-bound traffic. At that point, the eastbound asphalt lanes will be torn up and replaced with longer-lasting concrete.

Later this year, the traffic flow will reverse so that the westbound lanes can be rebuilt.

Estes said much of the work will be done at night to minimize disruptions to traffic flow on the highway, which sees an average of 72,000 vehicles a day at its west end and 124,000 vehicles a day around Federal Boulevard.

"It reduces the impact to traffic, and it helps us because it allows the trucks to go faster," he said, as a street sweeper drove by near Sheridan Boulevard preparing the newly paved temporary lanes for striping Wednesday. "It's a win-win."

Estes said the project is on schedule despite the challenge of dealing with a massive fiberoptic line at Lowell Boulevard that needs special attention. He also said Ames is trying to keep the project as green as possible -- it plans to crush all the asphalt it removes and use it as road base for the new lanes, keeping tons of material out of the landfill.

Narrower lanes

but same number

Crane said integral to CDOT's decision to go with Ames for the U.S. Express Lanes project was the venture's assurance that it would keep two lanes open in each direction during peak periods throughout the multi-year project. While the lanes will be a foot narrower than normal, she said drivers will gradually grow used to the cramped space.

"For CDOT, that was very critical," she said.

With no shoulders in sections of the corridor while work is under way, Crane said an emphasis will be placed on removing stopped vehicles from the road as quickly as possible. Courtesy patrols run by Ames will help fix flat tires or gas up cars that have run empty, she said.

"The key is to get those disabled vehicles out of traffic and keep traffic flowing," she said.

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